The phenomenon is not attributable to the pandemic this time. In 2022, the absenteeism rate rose again to reach 5.64% compared to 4.94% in 2021 according to a cross survey by the IFOP opinion polls institute and the Diot-Siaci group, specialized in insurance consulting and brokerage patrimonial and personal for companies. This rate is thus very slightly higher than that of 2020, which was 5.62%. L’étude croise une enquête conjointe avec l’IFOP qui a été menée uprès de 3000 salariés le mois dernier et l’Observatoire statistique more en place par le groupe Diot-Siaci between 2019 and 2022 and who portait sur a perimeter of 660,000 individuals l ‘last year.
In addition, although absenteeism increases in all age categories between 2021 and 2022, its increase in two years is concentrated in the youngest employees, that is, those under 25 years of age and those whose age ranges between 25 and 34 years.
Occupational health at the center of concerns
Health reasons justify an increasing number of absences, specifically 84% of them in 2022 compared to 77% in 2021. “While the issue of absenteeism is often perceived or approached through the prism of lack of commitment of employees, the survey results show very clearly that health at work is the fundamental cause of the vast majority of absences”, underlines Sabeiha Bouchakour, Director of Quality of Life at Work and Prevention at Diot-Siaci.
And it is not for less, more than 60% of employees believe that they practice a profession likely to have a negative impact on their mental health when this percentage exceeds half in terms of the negative impact on their physical health. Among the factors that can harm their health, two thirds of employees mention stressful situations, followed by excessive workloads (51%) and lack of recognition (46%).
Internally expected actions
Given the growing importance of these issues in their daily work, employees expect to act, in particular, in training their direct superiors on these issues. The study thus reveals that barely a third of the employees surveyed believe that the managers of their companies are sufficiently aware of psychosocial risks.
At the same time, the interest of employees in the different training courses dedicated to health is growing, such as the prevention of musculoskeletal disorders that interest 71% of employees or stress management and the prevention of psychosocial risks towards which they are they direct two employees towards three, increasing the interest in these two fields by 6 and 8 points respectively in one year. Finally, more personal and intimate topics are also experiencing a revival of interest compared to 2021. These can include sleep advice (56%, +5 points), assistive devices for accompanying a sick family member (50%, +5 points), +8 points) or even a psychological help line (50%, +9 points).
Source: BFM TV
